By the River
by GreatGoogilyMoogily
Summary: There are special moments in life when everything seems perfect. He experienced this brief moment of bliss brought about by nothing in particular on a starry night by the bank of a river. One-shot. No pairings.


A/N: Another one-shot, and this one is really quite pointless.

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Steam drifted lazily upwards, creating small trails in the air on it's path from the pot. The water was in full boil by now, and the rice that shared the pot with it was gradually softening. Flanking it, on either side of the fire were two full fish, caught just recently and skewered above the flames.

It was a simple dinner by anyone's standards, but for a person like Naruto, simple was much preferred.

A wind up timer ticked lazily along, blending in seamlessly with the rustling of the trees, babbling of the river, and bubbling of the pot. The small camp gave off a perfect lackadaisical vibe.

It was almost enough to make him forget about all his troubles. This small little world seemed so removed from everything outside that it was easy to think about it being the whole universe.. No countries vying for power, crazed mad-men bent on world domination, bandit's ransacking towns daily, or massive demons living in his stomach.

None of it. Just him and his temporary living area.

He was splayed on a large rock, occasionally sitting up to skip stones across the surface of the river and gaze at the sky. In the distance he saw the last rays of light glare off the horizon, in defiance of their imminent ends.

His mind blanked as he focused on the rock in his hand.

_Plish, plish, plish, plish, plish._

Six skips. Not bad, the most he had gotten before was seven.

A strong wind blew by when he was about to toss the next one, blowing his hair into his eyes and throwing his aim off a bit.

_Plish, plish, plish._

A scowl fluttered onto his face for a brief second before he chuckled lightly, letting himself fall back to a laying position. He could be such a child sometimes.

As the timer neared the end of it's allotted time, a bird dropped from a branch, catching itself on the wind a fraction of a second later and flying away. His eyes tracked it for a brief while as it passed over his head. The sound of the bell ringing brought him away from it, and he stood, working out some kinks in his muscles.

Now mobile, he walked over to the fire and began the final preparations for dinner. Removing the fish from the stakes, pouring the rice from the pot, and getting out a set of chopsticks before he dropped back into his seat. The meal passed quickly, and in an uneventful silence.

By the time he was done it was dusk. The brighter stars were fully visible and all the remained of those few defiant rays was the small orange glow at the peripheral edge of the world.

For awhile longer he sat there and watched even that tiny glow disappear, the sky giving in fully to the darkness, save the moon and stars.

And sitting there, in the peaceful little camp with an empty plate and a babbling river, a beautiful night sky, and the light smell of cooked fish in the air, he found that he never wanted to leave. Despite there being not a single special thing about it, this night was the most amazing he had yet to experience.

This feeling came about slow at first, contentment slowly building up inside him over the course of a few minutes. Soon enough though, there was a great longing within him, a longing for every night to be exactly like this one had been. He wanted to live in this care-free world for eternity.

He knew he couldn't, but for a brief moment he decided to forget that and indulge himself. Pretend that he would.

Even if it was just pretend.

There were things he couldn't abandon. Things that he had to see to before he could settle down and live in peace like this. The longing faded, and with a slight sigh he stood up to wash his plate in before going to sleep.

After all, tomorrow was another long day.

A/N: Well, not much to say.

This was inspired by me having a similar experience to the described within. I had a wonderful time in the car with a coke coming back from a Hardees and listening to the radio, and I felt so relaxed that I didn't want to leave the car when I got back home.

Anywho, in other news I've decided to officially drop Peace of Mind. I didn't plan nearly enough for it and have no where to go with it. I'm sure not many people are going to mind that much, so this it just get's a tiny footnote. At the very least I learned the lesson of always have an ending in mind before you start writing. I may start another multi-chapter story, but I'm not too sure when. I've got a couple ideas, but nothing really fleshed out.


End file.
